Inventing Iron Man by E. Paul Zehr

Author:E. Paul Zehr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2011-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

Figure 6.3. The “rubber hand” embodiment illusion. The stump of the amputee is stroked at the same time as a rubber hand that is in sight (A). Eventually the amputee perceives that the stroking of the rubber hand (with no activity on the stump) is actually coming from the stump (B). The illusion becomes so strong that in some people plunging a syringe into the rubber hand evokes physiological responses from the amputee (C). Photograph: Christina Ragnö, courtesy Ehrsson et al. (2008).

This raises the interesting idea that early versions (that is, before full nervous system integration) of an Iron Man suit of armor should have sensors on the fingers, hands, toes and whatever other body surface that activate skin areas on Tony Stark’s body. In this way, Tony would really come to embody Iron Man in the way he declared in Iron Man 2, “the suit of Iron Man and I are one.”

Incredibly, a recent study showed that including sensation from a robotic limb improved the ability to learn brain-machine interface commands. In 2010, Aaron Suminski, Nicholas Hatsopoulos, and colleagues at the University of Chicago used a “sleeve” over an animal’s arm to help train monkeys to move a cursor on a computer screen based on recording activity in the motor cortex. This is just like the procedures for brain-machine interface we talked about back in chapter 3. The crucial difference was that the scientists at University of Chicago allowed the monkeys to use visual and somatosensory feedback together. Those monkeys learned how to control the cursor much faster and more accurately! I think this would likely have an effect on embodiment as well. This awaits future research.

Embodiment can arise from extensive use and practice with tools and devices. It is highly likely that this also occurs with extensive training with almost anything that is not part of the body naturally. This is also why learning to play a sport that uses tools—think golf or tennis, for example—is so challenging. This is probably because these tools or implements have not been extensively calibrated and mapped as parts of our physical bodies. Those somatosensory and motor maps have been continuously developed and recalibrated over all the years of your life to reflect your body size and habitual activities. But you use your body every day, and it has always been there for you. In contrast, the particular implements or tools that we use haven’t been with us all the time and we don’t use them continuously. Those maps we have for our bodies have to be able to integrate and incorporate the tools into our physical perception of ourselves. This is what is meant by embodiment. It does seem that, while these changes certainly do occur, the changes in our body maps are weaker than those for our actual body parts.

Because of that more practice—or maintenance activity—is needed to keep those maps strong and intact. In my own physical activity experiences in martial arts, I can certainly attest that complex techniques

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